Not just failing to get 60, but also failing to get a simple majority? Whoa! There's hope yet. If these people are your Senators, you should consider calling them to thank them.Senator Harry Reid's attempt to move $247 billion in health care spending to a separate bill has failed, as he came far short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and proceed to vote.
In fact, the cloture vote on the bill to prevent scheduled cuts to Medicare doctors' payments without offsetting spending cuts or new tax revenue did not even get a simple majority, with just 47 Senators voting to cut of debate, and 53 Senators voting against the measure.
While I don't yet have a full roll call, among the Democrats voting against were Sens. Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, Joe Lieberman, Claire McCaskill, Mark Warner, Jim Webb and Ron Wyden.
Ace of Spades supplies a bit more analysis:
For all of you who called in today, thank you! You just made it more difficult for the Democrats to claim ObamaKennedyDeathCare was budget neutral. Well done!Two Points: One, everyone in Washington knows this measure is intended to buy the AMA's support for ObamaCare -- so it should be included in the costs of ObamaCare. The Democrats want to pretend it's a standalone, unrelated bill and so "save" $247 billion from the costs of ObamaCare.
Two, it shows the absolute horses**t of Congress promising to make cuts to a government program ten years down the line. This measure, I'm sure, was passed in 1997 for one reason -- to make it look as if we were doing something to contain the exploding costs of Medicaid and Medicare. Well, the cuts promised -- "mandated" by law -- 12 years ago are now due, and Congress of course scrambles to rescind the cuts and restore payments to what they would have been without the 1997 "cuts."
But we're supposed to believe that the various measures that supposedly bring down the costs of ObamaCare, set to occur conveniently in the future, will be carried through?
There's my two cents.
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